The power dissipation of integrated circuit chips, and the modules containing the chips, continues to increase in order to achieve increases in processor performance. This trend often poses a cooling challenge at both the modular and system levels. Increased airflow rates are often need to effectively cool high powered modules and to limit the temperature of the air that is exhausting into the data center.
In many large server applications, processors, along with their associated electronics (e.g., memory, disc drives, power supplies, etc.), are packaged in removable node configurations aligned within a rack or frame. In other cases, the electronics may be in a fixed location within the rack or frame.
Typically, the components of an electronics rack are cooled by air moving in parallel airflow paths, usually front-to-back, and propelled by one or more air-moving devices (e.g., fans or blowers). The rotational velocity of the air-moving device within the electronics rack is conventionally fixed by the manufacturer to account for a variety of ambient temperature, altitude, heat load, configuration and motor variations that will effect the maximum safe rotational velocity of the air-moving device. Existing solutions employ one or more of these variables, such as anticipated ambient temperature, in defining the maximum rotational velocity (e.g., RPMs) of the air-moving device. Generally, these existing solutions are weak in that they necessarily assume worst-case operating environment scenarios, and hence deliver rotational velocities less than technically feasible for a given air-moving device. These generalized constraints can be particularly problematic in the event of a failure of one or more electronics components within an associated electronics subsystem of the electronics rack being cooled. The failure of a particular component may result in other components within the electronics subsystem generating increased heat flux while the failing component is in failure state.